Things found on the range

[CADPAT SOLDIER]

Now seeing as I  am a cadet I am very fortunate that I get to spend maybe a weekend a year on the range at CFB Shilo
now in my limited experiance I have found (or seen people find) some interesting things.
1.) a really old helmet (buried in the ground at what seamed to be a very old biv site ( other metal cans and such found around)
2.) Some sort of grave yard
3.) a pick axe
4.) belts of ammunition (blanks )
5.) boxes of smoke grenades
6.) asst'd pieces on cadpat clothing
now like I said I don't spend much time in shilo and I'm sure that a few people must have found alot more interesting stuff.
So name it!
PS how do you possible loss your helmet?

 

[Spanky]

Spring is a good time to find stuff.  We once found a completly loaded toboggan in Meaford. 

 

[Slim]

Spring is a good time to find stuff.   We once found a completly loaded toboggan in Meaford.  

There is a rumour of an entire Centurion tank buried to the eyeballs out in Wainwright someplace...Though I've never seen it and don't know of anyone who has...

Lance Weibe would be the guy to ask about that as he is an old time armour guy.

Slim

 

[vangemeren]

Fort Pine in Petawawa for years was a scout camp (the status may have changed  I don't know for sure) and the kids would find spent shells and things like that. One time, one of the adults spotted a box of ammo (I don't know if it was live or not) and we had to keep the kids away from the area until it was moved to one of those red box disposal thingies. (I'm sorry If I'm not using the right terminology) Sometimes in the cabins, we would find little things that the soldiers would leave behind.

 

[Michael OLeary]

There is a rumour of an entire Centurion tank buried to the eyeballs out in Wainwright someplace...Though I've never seen it and don't know of anyone who has...

Buried tank and APC discussion theads:

http://forums.army.ca/forums/threads/15176/post-64465.html#msg64465
http://forums.army.ca/forums/threads/4098.0.html
http://forums.army.ca/forums/threads/1655/post-19184.html#msg19184

 

[goshofmosh]

a really really old unopened bottle of beer it was one of those fat ones with a short neck some guy was sleeping on it for like 2 days before he pulled it out cause it was so uncomfy

 

[Da_man]

We found a used condom in Farnham the other day....  :-\

 

[Ranger]

well thats just disgusting

 

[Sheerin]

reminds me of the place i lived in in second year... while on the tour of the place in a couple months before we moved in (this would have been march of 02) we took a look in the basement and found (and I kid you not) at least 20 used condoms, fragments of what test tubes, which we assumed were used as crack pipes, a huge pile of porn, blurry polorids of what we assumed were either people having sex or people just lying around naked, many empty bottles of beer and Colt .45 and OE ghetto beer, and a dime bag of weed whcih the previous occupants probably forgot about...

The rest of the house was nice.  And our landlord was a really nice guy (he is a high school chem teacher and his wife worked in the registrar's office at Trent university) and he cleaned up the basement for us.. He had just bought the house and obviously the prevous owner hadn't really taken care of the place.  The people who lived in the house before us were either Trent or Fleming students (can't remember) but they were all placed on academic suspension the previous year - with what we found in the basement is it any wonder why? 

But yeah, cleaning up used condoms is never fun... even if they're yours

okay back to my medical anthro take home exam... which is due in approximately 4 hours and i have 1 question left... yay!

 

[Marty]

There is a rumour of an entire Centurion tank buried to the eyeballs out in Wainwright someplace...Though I've never seen it and don't know of anyone who has...

Lance Weibe would be the guy to ask about that as he is an old time armour guy.

Slim

There are rumors of burried Tanks and Tracks at every base that has/had them .

 

[CADPAT SOLDIER]

I forgot to add the three foot deep hole full of barbed wire we found.... The hard way .... In the dark
I don't pity the SI that fell into that one

 

[Bartok5]

Be VERY careful about what you pick up, dig up, kick, or otherwise disturb in a military training area.  This holds doubly true if the land that you are using is/was a live impact area.  Unexploded ordnance (UXO) and pyrotechnics dating back to WW II routinely surface within current and former training areas as a result of erosion, digging, etc.  It wasn't that long ago that several British soldiers digging a trench at CFB Suffield struck a UXO 155mm Artillery round with a pick-axe, resulting in at least one death and several severely injured (IIRC).  There was also the 105mm Arty HE warhead that was recovered and sold off as "range salvage" by CFB Shilo about 10 years ago, only to explode and kill one of the civilian workers at the metal recycling company that had purchased the scrap.  As I said, these things happen.  Death and serious injury arising from careless or unintended contact with UXO occurs with surprising frequency all over the world, and Canada is no exception. 

Unless you can positively identify an object as completely harmless (eg. a helmet, clothing, inert equipment, etc), the best course of action is to leave it alone.  If an item is suspected to be unexpended ammunition or UXO, Range Standing orders obligate you to mark the location and report it to Range Control for investigation and appropriate removal.  There are numerous reasons that we do not disturb suspected UXO.  Certain warhead fuses are extremely sensitive to begin with, and can become moreso over time if left exposed to the elements.  Warheads that appear to be the light-blue "inert training rounds" may in fact be live OG-painted rounds that have faded due to exposure.  Guess what colour OG turns when it fades?  I could go on, but I suspect that you probably get the point by now. 

Even the idea of anyone messing with abandonned or dud pyrotechnics scares the heck out of me.  A Trip-Flare, Smoke-Grenade, Thunder-Flash or Artillery Simulator can all do considerable damage if they unexpectedly ignite or explode.   

This may obvious to trained soldiers, but some of the comments that I've seen from the more junior members in this thread are cause for serious concern.  So, a final caution to those who evidently need it.  Stay as far away as you can from UXO and dud pyrotechnics (including blank ammunition).  The risk of serious (eg. permanent) injury is not worth satisfying your curiousity.

Mark C 

 

[Michael Dorosh]

PS how do you possible loss your helmet?

Attaching it to the outside of your AFV and then running through trees,
Clipping it to your webbing and having it fall off in the dark while climbing into an LSVW
Putting it on the floor of an MLVW cab and having some dozy guy kick it out by accident when disembarking

The sun is your friend...

 

[KevinB]

I can only echo MarkC's comments - ordnance is not something to fool with. 

Having done range clean up sweeps in Suffield, it is amazing the things you find...  (makes Pet and Wx look like neatly kept schoolyard.  )

 

[BernDawg]

I can only echo MarkC's comments - ordnance is not something to fool with.   

Having done range clean up sweeps in Suffield, it is amazing the things you find...   (makes Pet and Wx look like neatly kept schoolyard.   )

It really pays to keep one eye on the ground when you do the dismounted defile drills.  Never know what you might "trip" over.
-sidenote- I heard that the Brits consider 4 pers per ex acceptable losses on a Med Man rotation.

 

[SHELLDRAKE!!]

  How about the human skeleton found in a collapsed trench at CFB Suffield.......makes you wonder about the early years chemical testing by DRDC???

 

[LMN]

If someone found a gerber in Suffield...that bloody thing is mine!

:crybaby:

 

[Gill557]

If someone found a gerber in Suffield...that bloody thing is mine!

:crybaby:

So that's where my gerber is.  Give it back.

LOL just kidding it's not mine, I've never been to Suffield, I lost mine in Pet, so if anyone finds it there, I want it back. :

As for stuff I've seen.

1) An upside down rusty tank turret near the JFT Tower in Pet.
2) Rusty blank ammo by the ton, in Pet, Connaught Ranges, Farnham
3) An 82mm Mortar shell, in Farnham

I've heard of a guy who was digging out a trench at night in Pet, and hit something hard.  He figured it was a rock, hit it a few times, and then left it along.  Daylight comes and its a 105 shell.  Apparently the trench line emptied very quickly.

 

[career_radio-checker]

Was digging my trench in Shilo for FTX for SQ.
About 4 feet down I came accross what looked like rib bones and a femur. No complete squeleton.  Most likely they belonged to some prairie animal from long ago but still freaqy none the less.
Luckily I never had to stay in that trench. I had been switched up with a different Trench partner.